Wireless devices may include capabilities to access networks using various wireless access technologies. For example, these wireless devices may communicatively couple to each other through a wireless local area network (WLAN) using wireless technologies such as Wi-Fi™. The trend over the past few years has to been to incrementally increase the data rate and bandwidth of Wi-Fi-based WLANs. These increases have been made in a somewhat controlled interior environment within a building or a home. However, recent efforts are being made to interconnect wireless devices in large networks via Wi-Fi-based WLANs. These large networks may be deployed to cover a relatively larger area compared to traditional WLANs (e.g., a neighborhood, several city blocks or a large indoor/outdoor shopping mall).
Wireless devices in large networks may have relatively long distances to reach a WLAN access point. These long distances, whether in an exterior or interior environment, may result in communication channels that are not stable enough to support acceptable quality levels. Further, excessive power may be expended to boost transmission signals to improve quality. In some examples, relay operations may be used to provide a series of shorter communication links for a wireless device to use one or more other wireless devices to relay data or communications to or away from a WLAN access point. These shorter communication links or hops may reduce transmit times, increase the quality of communication links (e.g., less packet errors) and may also reduce power consumption at the transmitting wireless device.